About this episode

Chris Hedges interviews Ece Temelkuran about her insights on fascism and the political landscape in the 21st century.

Forced to leave her home country due to political and economic repression under the dictatorship of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish author Ece Temelkuran sought an understanding of how a population can be led down the path to fascism. Whether it is under Narendra Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey or Donald Trump in the United States, she found that the stages are very similar and so are the mistakes people make along the way. Temelkuran strives to provide readers with an understanding of the roots of the fascist new world order and the language necessary to change direction. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Hedges and Temelkuran discuss her newest work, “Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century,” and a previous book, “How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism.” Temelkuran connects the crises of today to the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century, which made promises of prosperity but instead destroyed social infrastructure and financial security and increased state repression to subdue resultant popular struggles. Hedges calls this ‘cutthroat capitalism’, a system that divides people and pits them against each other and against…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Hedges

Guest: Ece Temelkuran

Topics covered

• fascism
• political repression
• neoliberalism
• social infrastructure
• democracy
• capitalism

Keywords

• Ece Temelkuran
• fascism
• political repression
• neoliberalism
• democracy
• capitalism
• Turkey
• United States

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century, How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism

More episodes of The Chris Hedges Report

• Is Iran Becoming Another 'Forever War'? (w/ John Mearsheimer) | The Chris Hedges Report · July 20, 2026 · 52 min
• Democracy Necessitates Resistance (w/ Roger Hallam) | The Chris Hedges Report · July 17, 2026 · 48 min
• What Happens 'When the World Sleeps' (w/ Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report · July 7, 2026 · 57 min
• Weaponizing Civil Death to Crush Dissidents (w/ Hüseyin Doğru) | The Chris Hedges Report · July 1, 2026 · 39 min
• Fighting the Corporate Duopoly at the Ballot Box (w/ Kshama Sawant) | The Chris Hedges Report · June 24, 2026 · 52 min
• His Harrowing Experience in an Israeli Torture Dungeon (w/ Thiago Ávila) | The Chris Hedges Report · June 17, 2026 · 57 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Chris Hedges Report podcast page.